Fake antivirus programs use ransom threats to scam people

Extract . . . 

Fake antivirus programs appear to be adopting some of the money-raising tactics of more threatening ransom malware, security company Fortinet's latest threat report has found.
The most prevalent malware variant during August was TotalSecurity W32/FakeAlert.LU!tr, a malicious program that masquerades as antivirus software in order to sell worthless licenses for non-existent malware. On its own it accounted for 37.3 percent of all malware threats detected by the company during the month. 

Link

http://www.cio.co.uk/news/3238085/fake-antivirus-programs-use-ransom-threats-to-scam-people/